The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
The term “Web services” describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, and WSDL standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available. Used primarily as a means for businesses to communicate with each other and with clients, Web services allow organizations to communicate data without intimate knowledge of each other's IT systems behind a firewall.
Web services share business logic, data, and processes through a programmatic interface across a network. Web services allow different applications from different sources to communicate with each other without time-consuming custom coding. And, because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. For example, Java can talk with Python and Windows applications can talk with UNIX applications.
Web Services specifications compose together to provide interoperable protocols for Security, Reliable Messaging, and Transactions in loosely coupled systems. Web Services specifications include both approved standards (e.g. by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)) and proposed documents and drafts that may become standards.
A multi-functional peripheral (MFP) is a device that performs one or more functions, such as printing, copying, facsimile and scanning. MFPs thus contain increasingly complex logic in order to service requests from multiple clients. Furthermore, adding and updating services on an existing MFP is difficult while not disrupting existing services. Thus, there is a need to simplify the communication between a client and an MFP. There is also a need to simplify the addition of new services to an MFP and to simplify the process of updating existing services.